He was wearing what looked like a suicide vest at the time of the arrest, but officials said the suicide vest was fake.

Officials said the suspect, a Moroccan national, had been under investigation for some time.

“This arrest was the culmination of a lengthy and extensive operation during which the individual was closely and carefully monitored,” said Sgt. Kimberly Schneider of the U.S. Capitol Police, who said the suspect was arrested “in the area” of the Capitol building.

“The U.S. Capitol Police was intimately involved in the investigation for the duration of the operation. At no time was the public or congressional community in any danger.”

The suspect was arrested by the FBI and members of the U.S. Capitol Police after a lengthy sting operation.

Undercover FBI agents had posed as al Qaeda associates and provided the would-be bomber with the vest. The suspect had allegedly been watched for several months and had indicated that he wanted to launch an attack. [. . .]

Say, Congress, how is Muslim immigration looking today? Does it seem a bad idea yet?

Diana West pointed out a possible reason for Fox’s recalcitrance in reporting another case that looks bad for Muslims, that of a Saudi blogger who will likely be executed for a rather mild tweet deemed blasphemous: a Wahhabi Saudi prince owns a sizable chunk of the supposedly conservative network.

Have you heard about the 23-year-old Saudi journalist who tweeted an imaginary conversation with Muhammad? It went something like this: He loved Muhammad, he hated Muhammad, he couldn’t understand Muhammad, he wasn’t going to pray for Muhammad. If this isn’t exactly a disquisition on faith and doubt a la “The Brothers Karamazov,” remember, we’re just talking Twitter.

If you haven’t heard of this young man, whose name is Hamza Kashgari, it could be because you’re watching too much Fox News. As of this writing, almost a week after the Kashgari story broke, I haven’t found a single story about it at the Fox News website. (You try: www.foxnews.com.) Meanwhile, CBS, NBC, ABC, MSNBC and CNN have all reported the Kashgari story, clueing in their viewers on how far totalitarian Islam, Saudi style, will go to exert its control over the human spirit. But not Fox.

Say — you don’t suppose the fact that Prince Alwaleed bin Talal owns the second-largest block of stock (7 percent) in News Corp., Fox News’ parent company, not to mention a new $300 million stake in Twitter (almost 4 percent), has anything to do with Fox’s silence on this Saudi black eye of a story? After all, it was Saudi dictator King Abdullah — Alwaleed’s uncle — whom press accounts credit with ordering the tweeting journalist’s hot pursuit and imprisonment. And it is Saudi Arabia’s adherence to Islamic limits on free speech that is driving Kashgari’s ordeal. [. . .]

I wondered the same thing when watching a Fox doc last August about honor killing that didn’t mention how Islam routinely demeans women as a matter of religious belief: Fox News Honor Killing Report Disappoints.

UPDATE: The would-be jihadist has been identified as 29-year-old Amine El Khalifi, a resident of Alexandria. He came to the United States at age 16 and had an expired visitor’s visa, making him an illegal alien (Terror suspect arrested near Capitol in FBI sting, AP).